THE MARBLES – For Rockers of All Ages (1977)

 © Robert Barry Francos / FFanzeen, 1977/2022
Images from the Internet unless indicated

When I started to collect pieces for the second issue of FFanzeen, I decided to begin with a band I enjoyed: The Marbles were an amazingly entertaining band. Their sound was a unique combination of power-pop / rock’n’roll that they made their own.

I was a fan of the group and saw them often, sharing bills with bands like Television, Mong, the Mumps, and Milk & Cookies (another personal power pop fave). And yes, they shared the bill with the infamous CBGB AC/DC show, which was Bon Scott’s last New York performance, to which I was present (the enclosed pictures by me here are from that night).

The musicians had similar pageboy hairstyles and looked very boy-next-door, in fresh pressed white shirts and slacks. Their main power lay in their songs, which were hard-hitting, killer pop tunes, fueled by Howard Bowler’s lead guitar and bolstered by Eric Li’s keyboard. This is evidenced especially in their first single, on Ork Records, “Red Lights” b/w “Fire and Smoke” (“Red Lights” was also included on ROIR’s excellent Singles cassette collection). Eventually they would come out with another single, “Forgive and Forget” b/w “Computer Cards.” Unfortunately, these two 45s represent all the existing officially released catalog of the Marbles. What happened to the tapes they refer to in the interview following is a mystery. According to their ex-manager, Alan Betrock (d. 2000), they no longer exist. It’s a shame, because they had some killer tunes, like “Closing Me Down,” “She’s Cool,” “Jealousy,” “She’s Pleased,” and especially the bouncy “You Tomorrow.” Live versions of many of these songs can be found online. After all this time, I still remember the tunes to many of these songs. Despite being a pop band, they also had a snotty attitude, which help them fit into the scene.

I was fascinated with Jim Clifford’s bass, and bass playing style. It was Clifford’s bass that made me first notice the Rickenbacker brand. I couldn’t figure out how anyone could play a bass with a neck that long. I was also amazed at his technique, which I have rarely seen since. Rather than just bending his wrist around the bass and curling his finger to play the frets, his wrists were turned at an almost ninety-degree angle so the fingers were nearly straight. I tried duplicating it, but couldn’t come close.

This interview was published in FFanzeen No. 2, dated October 31, 1977.

The Marbles – For Rockers of All Ages

The Marbles are really one of the better bands around now-a-days. I have been a fan of theirs for a few years now and have caught their act whenever I could. Recently they went on vacation. When they left, they were very good, but now, they are just great. I had to interview them, and below is the outcome.

It was a hot night when I visited the Marbles’ loft, that last day of August 1977. The entire band, Howard Bowler (guitar, vocals), Jim Clifford (bass, vocals), Eric Li (keyboards, vocals) and David Bowler (drums, vocals), was present:

FFanzeen: How did the first single (“Red Lights”) sell?
Jim Crawford: There were 1,500 copies made at the most, and they all sold out.
David Bowler: We’re negotiating for a re-pressing.

FFanzeen: How did Terry Ork [d. 2004] approach you to do the record?
Jim: Over a joint.
David: He got us our first gig at CBGB on the same bill as the Ramones. And I work at Cinemabilia [with Ork]
Howard Bowler: He likes the band. He wanted to do a single … and he was picking bands he wanted to record. He started with Television [“Little Johnny Jewel, Parts 1 and 2” – RBF, 2022]. The second was …
Eric Li: Hell. Richard Hell [“Blank Generation” b/w “Another World”  – RBF, 2022].
David: Then we came out.
Jim: Then he went berserk.
Howard: And we haven’t seen him since [laughs].

FFanzeen: His next single is going to be with Teenage Jesus and the Jerks. [Note: either this never happened or was not released – RBF, 2022]
Jim: Yeah? The New Wave bands have to make a splash with the critics.

FFanzeen: Are you satisfied with the single?
Jim: No. The master recording we did for Terry Ork was very clear; you could hear every instrument. You could hear the vocals: ... We’re satisfied with our performance on the record. There’s a lot of energy on that record, but as far as the actual pressing and mastering of the record, it was done – well, face it, Terry Ork doesn’t have that much money to work with. He tried the best he could but with the things he was using, the best is very sub-standard. Plus, this was one of the first recordings he put out, so he was still experimenting with different pressing companies. And unfortunately, the ones he experimented with us were really crummy. I mean, the first press cuttings of the single came back and it wasn’t even printed on the record straight. You’d put on the needle and it would speed up and slow down. It wasn’t on the central axis. The second one had a skip on it that was printed on the record. And five test pressings later, we finally decided to just go ahead with it. The third test pressing sounded like there were five thousand mosquitoes in the room. We were not satisfied with the sound quality, but we were satisfied with the energy. We like the record. The songs come through anyway.
Eric: After the last pressing, we just got so disgusted we just said, “Go ahead with it,” ‘cause it was just taking so long.
Howard: We had planned to release it in September, and by the time we were finished, it was January when it was released.
David: Now it’s over a year old to us and we know we could do it better.
Jim: Anyway, we’re gonna put out a new one now.
Eric: That’s the main thing.
Jim: I don’t know if it’s gonna be by Ork or not, but we’re going to record a new single, “Free World” and “Love Today.”

FFanzeen: Are they new songs?
Howard: No, they’re about a year old now, but they’re very mature, and ripe for recording them. One of the songs is sort of a political statement, “Free World.” “Love Today” is, well, a love song about “every-man.”
Jim: It’s a revolutionary single. You have never heard a single like this.
David: Next question.

Eric Li (ffoto by Robert Barry Francos)

FFanzeen: I was going to ask if you were satisfied with the way Ork promoted the single, but …
David: He didn’t do any promotion, so we’re very satisfied.
Eric: We did about what we expected.
David: No, really. He told all his friends.
Jim: Well, actually, they sold out so we can’t be unimpressed. He only pressed 1,500 copies, and the fact that it was an Ork record and we were a part of the New York rock scene. We were just so disappointed in the sound quality, that before he printed any more, we wanted it pressed at a different place. He has to come up with the money to do that before we’ll go ahead with it. (We) want to do it, but it’s just a matter of getting the monkey wrench out of the works.

FFanzeen: Was “Jailbait” recorded at the same time?
Howard: Yeah.
David: There were two others. “From Me For You” and “Closing Me Down.” All recorded at Douglaston.

FFanzeen: Will you release those?
Jim: No, actually those will be burned.
Eric: We’re thinking of changing the B-side to “Jailbait.”

FFanzeen: When was the last time you played together publicly?
David: Our last New York job was four months earlier.
Jim: In May
Howard: We took a summer break. We went to Minneapolis. And we played there three nights.
David: It was great. Parties every night. Encores every night.
Eric: Unqualified success.
Jim: Everyone liked us a lot.
Howard: The bar owner there did the best he had ever done, and they want us back. That’s part of this tour. The reason we set up this tour is because we did so well in July when we played there and he asked us back in October, and we figured if we’re going out there in October, this time let’s make some money, so we want to have jobs stopping off in Cleveland and Ann Arbor. We have connections for a few jobs on the way out and hopefully on our way back. And we’ll be playing. That’s another thing.

Eric Li, David Bowler, Jim Craford, partial Howard Bowler
(ffoto by Robert Barry Francos)

FFanzeen: Did you enjoy your vacation?
Eric: Oh, yeah!
Howard: It was great.

FFanzeen: Why did you take a break?
Jim: Because we couldn’t get a job in New York. Summer in New York is so hot, and Hilly [Kristal, of CBGB] at that point was not really excited about hiring us. We didn’t want to play at Max’s because – eh – we just didn’t want to play there. And the summer here was just very dead.
David: We had to get our heads together.
Eric: We just wanted a break. We needed a vacation and it was really fun.
David: We kept on rehearsing, we worked on our material, and we were going through managerial problems that was taking up a lot of our attention.

FFanzeen: That was Alan Betrock?
Jim: Boy, you leave no stone unturned. Next question.

FFanzeen: How did you get to play at the ECHO convention (two years ago)?
David: Our first manager [Betrock] got us the convention. Next question.

FFanzeen: OK, I'll pass on that one. Never let it be said I couldn’t take a hint.
Jim: He’s a fine rock writer.

FFanzeen: What do you call what you play?
Jim: Music. Definitely music.
Howard: Noise with a sprinkling of screaming. No, I call it Alfred.
David: Marbles Music Mania.
Jim: It’s hard to classify us. We’re somewhere between AM and FM, whatever that means.
Howard: Nirvana.

FFanzeen: What do you think of some of the other New York bands?
Howard: We like the Mumps. I like the Heartbreakers. I like the Voidoids, despite their music. I used to like Television. Blondie’s gotten better. Patti Smith is dead. She was great.
Jim: That about covers it.
Howard: You see, the bands that we listen to are not the so-called New Wave bands that have cropped up in the last eight months. Teenage Jesus, the Cramps. They’re just awful. There's a fundamental philosophy that if you get on stage with an instrument, you should know how to play it.
Jim: I just find it boring. I have no place in my mind for the thoughts those people have.
David: I mean, what does it mean to be “cramped?”

FFanzeen: If you had a choice, what band would you choose to play with?
Jim: Marbles and Mumps are the strongest. Actually, the Rolling Stones.

FFanzeen: What are your ultimate goals?
Jim: To be the first rock band on the moon.
David: First goal is Number One single, ten gold albums.
Jim: Right now, my ultimate goal is to have enough money to buy a TV set. We’d like to tour Europe. I don’t know. Just to be rich and famous. To have fun. Pleasure. Eat a lot of beans. I want to be a major political force: ... for the youth of America. We want to lead America out of the depression. To give people something to believe in again.
David: We want to put rock music back on the map.

FFanzeen: What kind of fan is a Marbles fan?
David: Beautiful. Female. Eighteen.

(At this time, Jim got up to show me something and accidentally knocked my tape recorder off the table, and being consistent, my tape recorder stopped taping).

The publishing of this interview, in part, may have led to the dissolving of the band. At a time when CBGB and Max’s were the two key places in the city to play, the Marbles were considered a CB’s band. And from this interview, you can tell that not only did they insult Max’s, they were not on Hilly Kristal’s A-list either. At the time this interview was completed, the Cramps were CBGB’s Number One house-band. A week after this issue came out, the Marbles were booked to open for, who else, the Cramps. The story I heard is that when the Cramps read the interview, they told Hilly it’s “them or us.” Of course, Hilly went with the money (who wouldn’t) and blackballed the Marbles.

Having burned their bridges with Max’s, there really was no decent venue for them, and they could either move out of the city or dissolve. For a long time, I felt guilty for printing their comments about the Cramps, but in retrospect, I did not ask the Marbles about specific bands, they spoke up voluntarily, and on the record.

The band was very antagonistic in the interview. They were fresh and just back from vacation, excited about their material, and yet they were bitter about the whole scene. Others who have worked with Terry Ork were disappointed in his production, management of the promotion, and especially his handling of the cash, so that’s understandable. David told me years later, with some chagrin, that they were “young and arrogant.”

After Clifford left the band (he became a teacher in Minneapolis), they broke up, and then reformed with the late Richie Lurie (who would eventually join the Waldos with brother Walter Lure), calling themselves the Volts. I had the chance to catch them on February 13, 1981, at the long-since-gone Botany Talk House (Sixth Avenue and 27 Street).

When that ended, as David later explained to me, “Eric, Howard and I formed a production company called Atomic Records, and began writing and producing records for other artists. In 1988, we had a number one dance record with Denise Lopez, whom we had signed on to A&M. During this time, unbeknown to Howard and me, Eric developed a drug habit. Our record actually went Top 40 with … Denise Lopez, and we did two LPs for A&M Records [Truth in Disguise in 1988, and Every Dog Has Her Day in 1990 – RBF, 2022]. At any rate, Eric didn't show up at rehearsal for a few days and we knew something was up. So, I went to his apartment and found him. He'd been dead about 2 days.”

In the early 2000s, the Bowler brothers formed a new band called Contraband, leaning more towards a roots/folk rock sound. I have since regained contact with them and have even taken some publicity photos, including one that is incorporated in their second CD.